Inspectors find failures at Wausau VA clinic

WASHINGTON — A surprise inspection of a Veterans Affairs' outpatient clinic in Wausau found shortfalls in exam-room privacy, emergency-response training and hazardous-material inventory, according to a report released Thursday.

Representatives from the inspector general of the Department of Veterans Affairs who visited the South 32nd Avenue clinic also found that clinic staff need to more consistently perform comprehensive assessments of veterans who test positive for alcohol.

VA officials who oversee the clinic, which is under the jurisdiction of the Tomah VA Medical Center, concurred with the inspectors' findings and submitted plans and time lines to address them. The issues uncovered in the inspection were "significant enough" to warrant continued monitoring, the report said.

"We will follow up on the planned actions for the open recommendations until they are completed," wrote John D. Daigh Jr., the assistant inspector general of healthcare inspections.

The Wausau clinic was selected randomly for inspection, his report said. During the surprise visit in October, inspectors found:

•Privacy in women's exam rooms was inadequate;

•Clinic staff did not participate in scheduled emergency management training and exercises and did not receive regular updates on their responsibilities in emergency response operations;

•Half of 38 patients who tested positive for alcohol did not receive comprehensive assessments;

•The clinic did not review for accuracy inventory of hazardous materials at least twice in the past year as required;

•Hand hygiene was not monitored for compliance.

The Wausau clinic, which reported almost 9,000 primary care visits last year and 6,200 mental health visits, vowed to fix the issues by the end of June. The report comes amid an outcry over a Center for Investigative Reporting report that found opiates were handed out "like candy" to doped up veterans at the Tomah VA medical center.

Members of Wisconsin's congressional delegation, including Rep. Ron Kind, D-La Crosse, and Sens. Ron Johnson and Tammy Baldwin, called this week for an investigation of the Tomah facility. The Veterans Health Administration and the Office of Accountability Review launched a probe.